Bomb20 sound at home on Atari Teenage Riot's Digital Hardcore label. In fact, I can't imagine a more fitting label for them to call home. Their sound is a typical release for Digital Hardcore; the sounds are brash, noisy and extremely repetitive. As usual, though, it's the band's firm belief in their music and politics that really shine through.

Like Atari Teenage Riot, Bomb20 are all for "bringing the system down"; Field Manual's liner notes are seven pages of radical propaganda whose purpose is to wring the reader's neck, yelling, "Don't you see that you're being controlled?!" The "manual" is divided into three parts: Disinformation and Manipulation, Strategy, and The Mission, and it tells you what's wrong with society, why things are the way they are and how to form a revolution. It's clear they've thought it through.

What they preach isn't anything new; old- school punks have been promoting anarchism since the 1970s. But the Digital Hardcore gang give reasons, and that's what makes their philosophy seem less extreme. To those who believe anarchy is impossible because systematic structures are instantly imposed on new societies, Bomb20 state that "there must be organization and rules, but they should never predominate or work against us." But also mentions that "the only way of changing things is the total destruction of all [of a society's] parts, the complete system."

Field Manual truly sums up the sound and politics of the Digital Hardcore scene. From the movie trailer samples ("The only thing more dangerous than knowing the truth... is telling it") of the disc's opener, "The Fall," to the burning hip-hop insanity of "We Can Fuck" and the killer noise of "Edutainment Break," this record is by far the most effective politically- charged dance record ever produced. Destroy!!

-Ryan Schreiber